Garden hoses made of various forms of rubber and plastic are generally provided with so-called male and female end couplers by which the hoses are connected to one another, to faucets or spigots supplying liquid thereto, and to nozzles, sprinklers, etc. for dispensing the liquid. On currently marketed hoses such couplers, which are permanently affixed to the hose ends during production of the hose assembly, commonly comprise threaded male and female couplers, made of brass or the like, which include a ferrule placed over the outer end of the hose. A cylindrical tail piece, again of brass or the like, is introduced into the hose end and permanently expanded outwardly to urge the hose into liquid-tight engagement with the ferrule. These threaded male and female couplers may also be formed of plastic. In such couplers, a plastic cylindrical tail piece is inserted into the hose end and a clamp member, generally of brass, surrounds the external periphery of the hose and is crimped inwardly after being placed around the hose, to urge the hose into liquid-tight engagement with the tail piece.
The male couplers have heretofore generally been fabricated either entirely of metal or entirely of plastic. However, each of these has certain disadvantages. Thus, metallic couplers are relatively costly to fabricate and assemble. Both the material itself and the forming process are comparatively expensive. Metallic couplers are also susceptible to being permanently deformed or crushed under heavy loads, such as when run over by an automobile tire, and thus made unusable. On the other hand, when male couplers are made entirely of plastic, it is necessary to place a metallic ferrule around the periphery of the hose end and crimp it inwardly to urge the hose into liquid-tight engagement with the tail piece, because the plastic tail piece cannot be expanded. This results in a male coupler which cannot be assembled on the hose with existing conventional expansion equipment and which may have an aesthetically objectionable appearance.